Alan died on June 6. The great comet he discovered in 1995 gave him fame he deserved much earlier.
He was a lifelong ardent observer of the night sky; was often quoted in Sky & Telescope as an expert on comets. He was a patient comet-hunter, had put in hundreds of hours of methodical search. (This was in the personal-discovery age; now comets are routinely found first in images made by automated sky surveys.) It seemed unfair that Alan did not yet have a comet to his name. He lived at Cloudcroft in the cloud-free uplands of New Mexico.
At last, in 1995 just after midnight between July 22 and 23, happening to look with his telescope at globular cluster Messier 70 in the southerly constellation Sagittarius, he came upon his comet. Calculations from its movement showed that it was amazingly far out to be as bright as magnitude 10, must be large, a “new” comet from the remote outer solar system, and was likely when coming nearest to Sun and Earth in March 1997 to be far above naked-eye brightness. Indeed, many sky-lovers later felt that it compensated for the disappointing return of Halley’s Comet a decade earlier.
Despite being now just past the enormous distance of 50 AU (astronomical units, Sun-Earth distances), and near the south celestial pole, it is still in the list of observable comets.
Slightly after Alan’s discovery, and about 400 miles west, near Stanfield in Arizona, some friends were using a telescope; on taking his turn to look, Thomas Bopp noticed the comet. So this, too, was reported to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the comet had to become Hale-Bopp.
Alan wrote the “Comets” section of my Astronomical Calendar for 1987 to 1992 and 2003 to 2015. More recently I continued to rely on him for comet advice.
Once I telephoned him, and heard an amusing message in a grumpy voice: “Alan is away somewhere, I’m his phone, I’m left here watching the grass grow till he comes back.”
Alan was much more than an astronomical observer. He founded, and raised funds for, a project called Earthrise, an international network that would foster cooperation among researchers and students. He made several “science diplomacy” visits to Iran, including one to coincide with the transit of Venus in June 2004.
His web pages about all this seem to have survived him:
http://www.swisr.org/earthrise.html
http://www.swisr.org/iraneclipse.html
http://www.swisr.org/esfahan.html
The Iranian city where he spent the most time, as I did, and at which there was an international comet conference apparently organized by him, was Esfahan, famously beautiful with its blue mosques.
I refrain from quoting the very strong words with which Alan expressed his anger at the recent bombardment and killing of his friends in Iran.
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
According to wikipedia Comet Hale-Bopp has an eccentricity of 0.995, aphelion 354 AU, and an orbital period of about 2500 years. When it returns to the inner solar system around 4500 CE, will humans still be scanning the heavens? Will they refer to ancient records and identify the fuzzball as the second known observation of Comet Hale-Bopp? Will we have learned to live with one another in peace and mutual respect?
If Wikipedia gives the aphelion distances as 354 AU, my statement that the comet is now beyond 500 AU was calculated from elements that must have been superseded. I had just let my program run, using my elements file, to get a figure, not going through the large process of revising the file from the latest MPEC file, as I will have to do before predicting comets for 2027. Not surprising that a recent observation at huge distance could have an uncertainty that could cause a tiny difference in an element that would cause a huge difference in spatial position.
For homo sapiens to be in existence and observing 2500 years from now, homo sapiens will have to become sapientior, don’t you think?
Sapientior, amantior, et multo humilior. (Gratias agimus Google Translate.)
Bene dixis, Antoni!
Wow. Such is life, sadly, in a cultural civil war.
The thing of it is… Mr. Hale was hardly alone in his embrace of the cross-borders aspect of astronomy, and I also internalized that outlook early on as a young amateur astronomer back in the 1960s. Such “person to person” diplomacy comports with the traditions of professional astronomers in maintaining a collegial atmosphere despite politics and even the winds of war. Moreover, if there is ever to be a true reconciliation between the people of the United States and Iran, it will draw upon such informal personal contacts just a much as formal diplomacy.
As Guy said, “Alan had astronomical accomplishments, he also had a humane outlook, resulting in his work toward international cooperation and his vivid sympathy with the Iranian people he had known. Both of these are worthy of celebration.” Amen.
Having said that, the IRGC, the apparent de facto leadership of Iran is a brutal, despotic, and misogynistic regime, and with its perversion of the tenets of Islam it amounts to little more than a death cult in search of additional victims. Pretending that this is not true is a grave disservice to the people of Iran who deserve — and hopefully will finally attain — better. At the same time, the prospect of grave harm coming to people there that we have gotten to know and respect, like Alan’s friends, is a terrible thing, and there is no sugar coating that, either. Wars, whether kinetic or cultural, most often involve goodly amounts of tragedy and sorrow, just as we are seeing here.
As the saying goes, we all share the same sky, and if astronomers can manage to get along and emphasize their commonalities instead of their differences, perhaps there is hope for the rest of us.
PS — Some while ago, I received some images of a mosque from a friend who was touring the city of Bulhara, in Central Asia. In one of these images — I am not sure how to include them in this reply — was the same young moon that I had also photographed just a few hours earlier or later than this, and it struck me, once again, just how much we have in common as a human family.
Apt, the moon over the mosque in Bukhara symbolized that we all share the same sky.
You and I and my Iranian friends in America wish for the end of the cruel theocratic regime. Unfortunately the rain of airstrikes by the US and Israel has had the effect that the regime is entrenched more fiercely than ever, so the Iranian people are suffering doubly.
I met him at least once at either a star party or event back in the 80’s. I am sad to see he passed away so young. I remember when Hale-Bopp was big news, I even taught my dog to bark out the backyard sliding door when I said Hale-Bopp. Hale Bopp -woof woof woof. Thanks for the nice tribute.
I thought you were going to say you taught your dog to bark when the comet rose into view so you could get out of bed and view it!
Interesting post. Describes the great accomplishments of Alan Hale during his lifetime and his contributions to the furtherance of science. I truly learned some things I did not know before reading this post. Thanks
Another thing I find interesting is the authors desire to needlessly make this political post. The whole comment “I refrain from quoting the very strong words with which Alan expressed his anger at the recent bombardment and killing of his friends in Iran” are unnecessary when listing the accomplishments of Alan. His accomplishments would have stood on their own without this statement. The author’s statement adds nothing but definitely reduces the value of the tribute.
It may indeed be true that Alan was angry about this issue, but what were the author’s motives that made him include that in this otherwise great post?
This was a great post until that point. Now it’s just another political gripe.
Alan had astronomical accomplishments, he also had a humane outlook, resulting in his work toward international cooperation and his vivid sympathy with the Iranian people he had known. Both of these are worthy of celebration.
I’m glad Guy included this additional side of Alan. It shows he was someone with many dimensions.
Could it be that you disagree with his political outlook? Was wondering if you’d have felt differently if, say, he had advocated bombing Iran